Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
Every government uses the national identity of the people they govern, their ethnic insecurities, habits and biases, against them. The stronger the national identity the easier it is to deceive them and send them to their deaths.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
The ultimate test of moral conscience for all humans is to reject every group-identity and stand alone with other humans. Only then we become fully human. For some it will be like stepping off a cliff, for others it will be like flying. Humanity is one because rationality is one.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
When nations go to war, they typically perceive one another as the enemy. This is not right. A human is never the enemy of another human; it is only the inhuman that can be the enemy of a human. The task of objective morality is to reliably discern the human from the inhuman within ourselves.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
A government that is willing to kill its own citizens, people of the same religion, ethnicity or culture for the sake of pharmaceutical profits, certainly does not give a damn about your religion, ethnicity or culture. Your cultural or racial identity is the leash they have you on. The stronger your sense of group-identity the shorter the leash. A state may designate another nation as your enemy, teach you how to fear them, despise them, feed you lies about them to sustain this polarisation, and their own government will feed them lies about you. You will not be allowed to make peace. Racial and cultural hatred is an international business model, a franchise owned by your government, and your group-identity is their intellectual property, crafted by symbolic conditioning and psychological manipulation. They own your ethno-religious-national identity, they always have. You were never free.
By taking a side in an emotionally polarised, irrational conflict, we only amplify the polarisation and thus impede its resolution. The optimal mediation strategy is to focus on WHAT is the right outcome (no matter who is involved), not on WHO is right. The impersonal WHAT is not in conflict, is not emotionally involved, allowing the mediator to transcend the conflicted parties and appeal to the principle, whereas the WHO adds nothing to the WHAT.
If a patient cured is a customer lost, then a war ended is two customers lost.
When a massively polarising, shocking event occurs, we have the opportunity to practice emotional self-restraint. Our common tendency is to spontaneously react to convincing narratives and emotionally fix our loyalty to one side (as defined by the narrative). This is what psychological warfare aims to exploit; once we learn to resist being polarised by real events, we become immune to being polarised by manufactured illusions and deceptions too.
The degree of polarisation generated over the last few days is unprecedented, worse than at any time during Covid. This suggests that the system is energising humanity for unprecedented carnage.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
I do not believe that the leaderships of China and the USA/NATO are opposed to each other’s interests. They seem to use engineered antagonism to advance the objectives of the global ruling class. The only political conflict that I know is real is between the global ruling class (including but not limited to the global banking cartel) and the exploited people in every nation, whose perceptions must be carefully managed to perpetuate their covert exploitation. It is not unthinkable that the ruling class actually believe they are bringing about some kind of salvation to the humankind. I guess at some point money is not enough; one wants to be God. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuBe93FMiJc
YouTube
Ned Beatty's NETWORK speech-by Paddy Chayefsky
As true now as it was in 1976.
Atrocity propaganda is morally wrong irrespective of whether the atrocity is real or fabricated. Its aim is to provoke the most primitive tribal instincts among the victims, to incite ethnic hatred and revenge, which is guaranteed to produce more reciprocal atrocities. When atrocities against 'our people' are used as a political currency, both sides have a utilitarian motive to commit them.
BREAKING NEWS: The Australian Electoral Commission has issued an urgent clarification on the eve of the Voice Referendum, in regard to informal votes. The Commissioner clarified, in the interest of fairness and electoral integrity, that any mistakes or deviations from the required format, including the requirement for cyan ink and the exact thickness of the lines (1.000 mm), shall be counted as YES votes;)
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
There is no such thing as ‘collective agency’ or ‘group action’ for the greater good. Humanity does not go to jail when it is accused of ‘collectively’ killing some humans for the benefit of the majority; only those who use the pretext of ‘collective agency’ for killing others do. The victims did not kill themselves by ‘collective action’.
It is a lethal mistake to consume only the war propaganda disseminated by your own rulers and their supporters. It is imperative to regard propaganda from both sides of every conflict on equal footing, and thus gain unbiased perspective on the provocations and the emotional manipulation that motivates people to kill one another. A crucial point to remember it that YOU are the target of your rulers’ propaganda, not your designated enemy.
All information disseminated by the government and the mass media should be regarded as propaganda.
All information disseminated by the government and the mass media should be regarded as propaganda.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
I propose a new Acknowledgement of Original Owners ceremony, otherwise know as 'Welcome to Reality', that should be conducted before every public event, performance or community meeting:
We acknowledge the Original Owners of the Earth on which we are standing, the Human kind of which we are all representatives. We all share the same ancient ancestors. We are all related. Reason unites us.
Join NORMAL
We acknowledge the Original Owners of the Earth on which we are standing, the Human kind of which we are all representatives. We all share the same ancient ancestors. We are all related. Reason unites us.
Join NORMAL
💥Now that referendum voting is over, use this simple DIY test ✨to find out whether you are a crypto-Nazi 🌞: https://michaelkowalik.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-government-regarding
Michael Kowalik’s Newsletter
Open Letter to Government regarding ‘Welcome to Country’ (the acknowledgement of Original People)
I submit that the concept of Original Ownership, or any statement implying that Aboriginal Australians as a race or ethnicity have a superior social status or value to other Australians, is an expression of nativist supremacism, a core feature of Nazi ideology.…
Thou shalt not mourn the dead from only thy own side, but count all human victims of war as thy own.
It is not possible to reconcile with people for whom equality is not enough. Before reconciliation is possible, people have to come to the understanding, by argument or experience, that equality is their best possible option, and this of itself is already reconciliation.
I suspect that most ‘black’ Aboriginal people would agree that all humans share the same ancient ancestors, that we are all related, that we are all the original owners of the Earth. I think they would be relieved by this knowledge, instantly freed from the frustration of inconsistent aims. Most of them are oblivious to our common roots because from the cradle to the grave they are immersed in nativist supremacist rhetoric. We must reach out to them, not to the ‘white’ Aboriginal managers who manipulate and exploit them, but to the ‘black’ Aboriginal people who are employed to unwittingly do the bidding of their corporate masters. We must speak to Aboriginal people at the grass roots level, let them know that we are one family, that nobody was first, because there is only one kind of us that morally matters.
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